October Magazine

Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon
(Nintendo 3DS) (2013)
Luigi has always been in his bigger
brother’s shadow, but he takes
the spotlight in the fantastic Luigi’s
Mansion series. Dark Moon, the
long awaited sequel on 3DS to the
initial game on Gamecube is a fantastic
gem that provides you with
the staple things you normally see
in “Mario” games of puzzles, exploration,
item collection with two
things you normally don’t: combat
and spooks!
Luigi finds himself tasked with
cleaning up a number of spooky
locales from haunted mansions to
even more haunted mountains, all
the time sucking up ghosts with
his trusty Poltergust 5000 – a supercharged
vacuum cleaner for
the supernatural. The normal series
standards are all well up to
snuff with great puzzles and welldesigned
levels but Luigi’s Mansion:
Dark Moon really shines in
its combat where Luigi must suck
ghosts into his Poltergust. It’s not
easy though! The bigger and more
powerful the ghosts, the harder it
is and the game poses some seriously
tough challenges capturing
some of the bigger spooks. Indeed
bigger spooks are also to be found
figuratively – despite being a family
friendly title I still jumped with shock
more than once each mission when
I was surprised by ghosts or fell
down a trapdoor, but it’s the best
kind of fun scare. Combined with
a surprisingly endearing plot that
shows a true hero is the one that
does the job no matter how scared
they are, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark
Moon is among the best games you
find involves ghosts, ghouls, and…
vacuum cleaners.